Disclaimer: I only just found out how old Teddy Lupin is. So, with that, I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Thank you all so incredibly much for reviewing! You are all the best: Pyromaniac-Girl, -Jeisa-, lilbit18, Green Crayons, iBlametheNargles, Jenn, CaramelBoost, Luminous Star, LyLMystiKeLf, sunstone-dono, SparklingEyesWithACrazyMind, Cristipotter, coffee dessert, fairycake, Emma Knightley, TwinkieTUTUS, penguin poodle penis, Moon Comix, bandeepthebest, dddynamite, stinkabhel, PrimaDi88, Mrs Claire Potter, Mouse and Stupid Productions, Red n Black Roses, C San, serenity12345, MourningBlade, Sprut, tashville007, and stardust718. Again, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! You guys are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

So, IT HAS ONLY BEEN TWO WEEKS! Is that record? I dunno, I can't keep track of things like that. I think I have ADD. Anyways, I just finished re-reading the seventh book for the second time, and I noticed something that I had never realized before. Teddy Lupin in nineteen years old in the epilogue! I totally didn't catch that the first time. I always thought he was like twelve so I was surprised to read he was snogging Victoire. lol Wow, okay that was random.

Now, on with the story I say.

Have fun reading!

Chapter 14: Phase five: Crave My Kisses

She really hadn't enjoyed it, had she?

No.

Was she only saying that because that was the answer she desperately wished she could give?

Of course.

Her mind was like one big blur. Everything was bottled up inside of her just waiting to spill from her securely zipped mouth. She hadn't spoken to anyone about what had happened at the party, including Marlene, who had been at the party, and who Lily had avoided for the rest of the night. It would have been odd talking about that thing that had happened at his house. And she couldn't have possibly have sent a letter to her friends discussing the incident; what if the letters had been intercepted? Her sin would have been written down on paper for anyone to see. No, sending letters definitely hadn't been an option…

"Had a good holiday, Lily?" a seventh year Hufflepuff from her Charms class asked her as Lily made her way down platform nine and three quarters. She simply nodded in response, her mind to jumbled up to come up with an adequate response.

…And it's not like she didn't want to tell her friends. In fact, she felt like she needed to tell them. She felt that if she spilled her guts they'd be able to convince her that this was how she was supposed to be feeling. That the reason she was such a paranoid, nervous wreck was because she had kissed her sworn enemy. Her extremely sweet sworn enemy. Her exceptionally good kissing sworn enemy.

Oh, Merlin. She had liked it, hadn't she?

She knew she had. From the moment she had kissed him on the cheek, she knew she would have enjoyed it. How could she have been so repulsed back in fourth year when she had to kiss him for that immature dare? Ugh. Stop it! Starting all of this had been a mistake. A huge mistake. Whoa, calm down, Lily. Just because she had found that little kiss to be preferable did not mean that she liked James. Did it? No, of course not. Yet, hadn't she already admitted that she fancied this new side of James? Hadn't she already said that if James had always acted the way he'd been acting for the past five months that she would have fallen for him? Did that mean she liked James Potter?

No, no, no. He's acting, Evans. Just acting. It's not real. None of this is real.

But that kiss had been very real.

But his attitude isn't.

She waved her wand, causing her trunk to float a few inches up into the air and then land softly on the floor of the train. Taking a quick glance to either side of the Hogwarts' Express to see if she could catch a glimpse of any familiar heads, Lily hopped up onto the train. All she hoped was that she'd meet her friends before she came face to face with any of the Marauders.

Thankfully, fate was in her favor. Lugging their trunks onto the train a few carriages down—clearly they had forgotten they could use magic—Marlene and Dorcas were grumbling under their breath about "bloody heavy books".

"We," Lily said, approaching them, "need to talk."

"Lily, what—?"

But Lily hastily waved her wand once more, levitating the trunks of her friends' along with her own, grabbed both Marlene and Dorcas around their arms, and dragged them down the train in search for an empty compartment. Finally finding one, Lily dropped the three trunks hastily into the corner, pulled her friends inside, and shut the door firmly shut. Outside on the platform the conductor was calling everyone aboard.

Lily spun around, stared at both her friends in turn, and practically blurted, "I kissed James Potter."

Her friends didn't miss a beat. "You what?"

"Could've guessed it."

"You what?"

Lily waved her hands frantically, shushing them. For all she knew the Marauders could be right outside the door. "I know, I know."

There was a slight commotion outside in the train corridor. Lily's breath seemed to stop momentarily. Please don't be James, please don't be James. Almost agonizingly their compartment door pulled open to reveal Alice, pink in the face from the cold weather outside, her trunk floating serenely along beside her.

Lily's heart fluttered in a relieved sort of way. Thank Godric.

"Hey, guys. What did I miss?" Alice asked, entering the compartment, smiling around at all of her friends after spending a few weeks apart. By the looks on her friends' faces, it was safe to say that she had definitely missed something important.

"Lily kissed James."

Alice's trunk dropped onto the floor with a bang that seemed to shake the train. That was enough of a big news for anyone to drop their ten pound trunk for, to be honest. "She kissed James?" Alice turned from Dorcas and Marlene to Lily, her face incredulous. "You kissed James?"

"She kissed James," Dorcas clarified.

"Merlin, you kissed James."

"Okay, that's enough," Lily said, slumping down onto the seat behind her and putting her hands up to her face for a brief moment. Dang, had they really needed to repeat it that many times? It was as if each time they said it, she relived the moment again. Liking it once was bad enough.

"You should have seen them at James's ball together, it was like they really were into each other—" Marlene continued, clearly unaware of the emotional dilemma Lily was in the middle of.

"Yes, thank you, Marlene," Lily mumbled, putting an end to the conversation and rubbing the temples of her forehead soothingly. Her friends shared glances.

Now that she had spilled the beans, Lily wasn't quite sure what else she should say. She half wished she could pick the beans back up and eat them, even though she had been dying to share them with her friends just ten minutes earlier. Why must her life be so utterly dramatic?

In a way that bothered Lily immensely, Dorcas began clucking her tongue impatiently. "Well?" Dorcas persisted, sitting down across from Lily with a bounce and clapping her hands together. Dorcas was evidently prompting Lily into speech; if she wasn't willing to elaborate, naturally her friends would lead her to her confession.

Lily watched Dorcas's facial expression go from excitement to eagerness; did she not see the problem with this? "Well what?" Lily asked impatiently.

"How was it?" Marlene practically blurted like she had been dying to ask the question for years, wiggling her eyebrows, which really creeped Lily out to be honest.

Her answer didn't form right away. If she said that James's kiss held something in it that she couldn't quite place, her friends would most definitely think that she was being swept up way too much into this whole dare/bet thing. However, if she lied and told them it had been the worst thing of her life…well, her blush would most definitely give her away.

"I don't know," she finally said, "I just don't know," Lily admitted, running a hand through her hair. She automatically stopped, for that one small gesture had reminded her of James, and it made her stomach erupt into butterflies, a feeling she had recently come to hate.

To avoid the looks her friends were surely giving her, Lily turned and looked out the window glumly, watching the city of London fade in the background as the train sped farther north. She knew that Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice were most likely communicating behind her back as they tried to come up with a way to fix this dilemma. Somewhere on the surface of her brain, Lily knew that she could always quit. But still—

"Look, Lily," Alice finally said, "obviously you're upset—"

"—more so than we thought you would be anyways," Marlene added.

"Well, we knew you'd be upset if he ever did kiss you, but we thought it would be more of a raving lunatic type of way," Dorcas clarified.

"Regardless," emphasized Alice, knowing that if they continued on the path they were Lily would most likely lose her temper. Oh, Alice, one could always count on her. "Lily, just stop doing the dare."

"No."

The word came out of her mouth before she had time to think about them. However, even if she had pondered the idea—which she actually had a lot this Christmas—the answer would still be no. She knew she couldn't quit, and she knew her friends thought so too. Lily was so far into this mess already, she couldn't just quit. It had become a sort of habit. Going back to normal—her normal where James Potter was nothing more than a last name to her—would be like quitting an addiction cold turkey. Things would just get more complicated. James would want to know why Lily randomly started disliking him again, Lily would have to fight her impulses to grab him and hug him, and she would most likely be bombarded by all of his friends who would thank her because they just won five galleons. Yeah, definitely not worth it.

She had a feeling her friends had known what she had just thought all along, so she didn't bother to explain her decision. They most likely had just wanted to give her the chance to back out, knowing perfectly well the Lily would never actually give up. Marlene nodded and her eyes focused on Lily.

"Well, then, now that that's settled," Marlene began matter of factly, a secretive smile on her face as Lily watched her look from Dorcas to Alice. Yep, they most definitely had spoken behind her back.

"It's quite obvious you shouldn't kiss him again," Alice stated simply. Lily rolled her eyes but nodded all the same. "And the way things are going, he's most likely to ask you out any day now, so you shouldn't have to hold him off too much longer…"

Lily pondered this. That was true. But she still didn't know where they were going with this.

"Lily, it's time for phase five," Dorcas said. Marlene and Alice nodded enthusiastically in the background.

Catching on to what her friends had in mind, Lily's eyes widened. "Oh no," she said, becoming oddly light headed at the thought of James and the quickly approaching phase five.

"Oh yes."

OO

It was just another phase, Lily constantly reminded herself, as she walked towards the bathroom on the Hogwarts' Express. Just like old times really. Here she was, another phase needing to be put into action in order to bring the boy she disliked most down. Being given another phase for her dare had acted oddly like a stimulant, as did her frantically beating heart. It was as if she had been presented with two choices: push her feelings for this 'faux' James to the back of her mind, or use them to help her dare appear more real. Lily chose to use them, just as James was mostly likely using his. For she knew deep down that everything James did was just an act in this complicated play they were in.

And she wouldn't let herself think otherwise. Not again.

Of course, it was probably much easier to convince herself of this while in the bathroom with some random second year Ravenclaw then if she had been in James's presence. While lathering the soap suds in her hands, Lily looked into the mirror and stared at her appearance. Her face stared back at her, her green eyes determined. She was strong, and she could do this.

What was this anticipated phase exactly?

To make James Potter crave her kisses.

It even sounded odd in her own screwed up mind, but it was perfect. She would keep him where she wanted him, leading him on, allowing him to think he'd won his bet, but she wouldn't have to kiss him. Playing hard to get, in a matter of speaking, was the key. She'd been doing that already for a while now, so really, how hard could it possibly be?

With that, she stepped out of the safe confinement of the bathroom and into a possible Marauder war zone.

"Lily!"

Before she had time to wrap her head around anything, someone had swooped down upon her and kissed her on the cheek, causing her back to tingle pleasantly.

Her breath caught in her throat. "James."

He held her by the waist as he scanned her face with his hazel eyes, as if he hadn't seen her in forever and was savoring the moment. "I've been looking for you," he said earnestly.

Lily grinned involuntarily at his sweetness. Her previous thoughts from the bathroom began melting away, like her cauldron had in second year when her potion had gone horribly wrong—hey, hadn't James been her partner? Oh, James, kind James, charming James—Pull yourself together, woman! A hand slapped Lily around the brain mentally, and she could have sworn that the hand she saw in her mind was wearing Marlene's pink nail polish.

"Really?" she asked, unwrapping herself from his arms, "now why would that be?" She grinned at him.

James smiled back, stepping closer towards her again, but Lily side-stepped him, flipping her long, red hair over her shoulder. "So, you missed me?" she asked him, brushing her hand up against his purposefully as she flaunted away.

Sensing the game she was playing, James strolled off after her, looking at her sideways. "You could say that."

They both began laughing for apparently no reason at all—well, Lily hadn't really seen what was so funny yet—as they set off down the train corridor. That was a good question actually; why was she laughing? It took about ten seconds for Lily to realize that her heart wasn't pounding so sporadically any longer. Actually, now that she thought about it, she felt…calm. She glanced at James only to find that he had been watching her. They both grinned.

"So," Lily began, "where're the famous Marauders sitting?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I need to know the area to avoid."

Lily stopped a few inches away from the compartment where her friends were sitting; she didn't want them watching her and James's flirtations, or whatever they were. "What, are you afraid of us now?" James asked, hands in his pockets as he grinned.

"Well, I don't want my hair to turn green, or something weird like that," Lily responded, grinning because he was. It was so infectious. "This is my compartment."

He took half a step closer and leaned his head closer down towards hers; Lily craved to take a full step towards him as well, but she resisted it.

"Don't drink the juice at dinner, then," he said seriously. And with that he stood back up straight and backed away with a wink.

"W-what?" Lily stammered, taken aback.

"Sit with us at the feast?" he asked, smirking.

"James Potter, come back here!"

With a happy wave, James said, "Bye, Lily!"

Her chest heaving because of her recently heavy breathing, Lily watched his back disappear down the train corridor. What had just happened? He thought he could just tell her something like that and walk away? If he and his Marauders had planned something…

Well, at least it had taken her mind off of kissing him.

And to be on the safe side, maybe she wouldn't drink the pumpkin juice tonight.

OOO

"Pumpkin juice, Evans?"

Yeah right, like she would take anything that Sirius Black was offering her, even if she hadn't already been told not to drink it. She shook her head and glared at all four of them slightly. The Hogwarts' Express had dropped them off an hour earlier in Hogsmeade and they'd taken the regular horseless carriage to the school. Suspiciously, Sirius and Peter had disappeared for fifteen minutes and had returned to the Great Hall fifteen minutes into the feast.

Odd much?

Well, it would be more so if the Marauders hadn't been doing this type of behavior since first year.

Whatever.

She took out her wand and pointed it into her goblet which instantly filled with clean, fresh water. "What are you guys doing?" Lily asked, looking around the Great Hall for anything suspicious as she took a sip.

"Eating," James answered, putting his arm around her shoulders. Sirius rolled his eyes.

Lily pursed her lips and looked around at her friends, who merely shrugged and pushed their goblets of pumpkin juice further away from them. "Look, don't worry, Lily, our pumpkin juice is potion-free," James reassured.

"Prongs!" Remus and Sirius said harshly.

"Potion?" Lily exclaimed.

"Ours aren't contaminated?" Dorcas asked. "Why didn't you tell us?" She poured herself a fresh glass and began drinking.

"Potion, James?" Lily repeated.

Sirius shook his head in a pitying way at his friend while Remus looked away pointedly, cutting up his chicken. Peter didn't quite know what to do, so he stuffed a piece of bread into his mouth. James looked at her, with something close to a guilty expression, just as a small commotion started at the Slytherin table. In fact, it was so small that the only reason Lily saw it was because she had been expecting something. Well, and the fact that the Slytherin table was situated right across from theirs.

Two Slytherins, Avery and Mulciber, were attempting to control Snape, who seemed to be in a heated discussion with his two friends. Because of the noisy chatter, Lily couldn't hear what was going on, but it had to be something big. She looked at the Marauders who had also caught the disorder amongst the Slytherins.

"Snape, Padfoot?" James hissed, glaring at his friend.

"Padfoot, you idiot, Prongs told you to do Avery," Remus said.

Now, Mulciber really was restraining Snape, his arms holding Snape under his armpits. Avery was watching in disgust, his wand out and pointing at his struggling friend. Then, with a bang, Mulciber fell backwards off the bench and sufficiently released Snape, who marched around the Slytherin table and headed straight for Gryffindor's.

At the same moment that Snape reached the head of Gryffindor's table, James took Lily's hand. "Lily, let's go on a walk," he said, trying to pull her up from the bench they were sitting on.

"This is your doing, isn't it?" she demanded.

"Lily, seriously, let's—"

"Lily!"

James recoiled in his seat, as if he wanted to turn invisible. Snape had finally reached his destination, which was right behind Lily. Sirius and Peter were chuckling to themselves. Remus was looking from Snape to Lily with a horrid expression on his face.

"Lily," Snape said, taking Lily by the back of her robes and turning her in her seat so she was facing him. By the looks of things, the only people who had noticed that something odd was occuring were the few Gryffindors seated around them, and the Slytherins who had been in the struggle to hold down Severus.

To her left, James was glaring at Sirius, and to her right, Alice was shifting uncomfortably. She looked at her old friend; he looked oddly timid. "What?" she asked him, shrugging his hand off of her.

The Death Eater in training reached a hand up to his head and smoothed down his hair. His eyes were strangely glazed over; what had the Marauders done to him? "I—Lily—I just wanted you to know—"

James had grabbed her wrist again. "I'm tired, are you tired? Let's go."

"You," Snape said, pointing his wand in between James's eyes, "stay away from her."

Okay, seriously, what was going on? This was so incredibly abnormal. Oh, Merlin, the Marauders had given Snape an Essence of Personality Change, hadn't they? That was so not funny.

"Look, you're obviously not right," Lily directed to Snape, turning to glare at the Marauders as she spoke. She stood up. "Let's go to the Hospital Wing."

"No, I don't need that place," Snape spat, "Lily, I think—I think I love you."

No one moved. Mulciber and Avery were muttering "Filthy Mudblood" underneath their breaths. Sirius shook with glee; Peter looked like he was about to pee his pants. Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice had frozen, their eyes flickering from the redhead to the greasy black haired guy. James shifted uncomfortably and Remus got up and ran up to the staff table.

"Y-you what?"

"I just can't get you out of my head," he said desperately.

Lily's heart was pounding crazily again. She whipped around to face James, turning her back on Snape who was currently trying to touch her hair. "You gave him a love potion," she hissed.

"Don't be mad at me" Snape began pleading over and over again, "I'm sorry, Lily, I'm sorry for everything," Snape said, reaching for her petite hands. Childhood memories began flooding her thoughts as one of Snape's long, bony fingers touching the skin of her hand.

And then Lily lost it. Her eyes filled with tears and everything around her became blurred and she could no longer distinguish whose hands were grabbing her where. And then Professor Slughorn was there, leading a stunned Severus out of the Great Hall—now all the students were watching—and then Marlene was clutching her shoulder while Dorcas was leading her from the table. Remus was whacking Sirius upside the head, and suddenly James was at her side.

"Lily, I really, really—"

His voice pulled her out of her despair. "Shove off, James, now is not the—"

"How could you do that?" Lily cried, interrupting her friends and furiously wiping her eyes. "No, you know what, don't bother to explain. I'll see you guys later tonight."

Seriously, what had those bloody Marauders been thinking? It was all their fault. They had gotten the potion, and the only way that the potion would have affected Snape in that way was if they had made it so whoever had drank it would immediately think of Lily. And James had known, had known that she and Snape had been friends, had known they had a falling out. How could he have done that?

"Lily, seriously, wait."

"Wait for what, James?" she practically screamed.

"That's not how it was supposed to turn out," James explained, stopping a foot from her.

"What? You weren't supposed to have tweaked the potion to make it appeal to me? You weren't supposed to give it to Snape? Merlin only knows how you got the potion in the first place—"

"It's been in stock," James said quietly, shrugging.

Lily gave him a disgusted look. Someone's true colors can't be hidden forever. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And to think she had thought she'd actually fallen for him. Ridiculous. And now Snape had apologized to her and had walked away from his evil friends—a thing she'd always hoped he would have—but he was under the influence of a most likely smuggled love potion.

"You are so—just leave, James."

James grabbed her elbow. "Lily, the potion was meant to be give to Avery—"

"—Oh, because that would have been better. Avery declaring his love for me—"

"—who was supposed to fall for Mulciber."

"You are so—What?"

"Sirius and Peter had been in charge of giving it to the house-elves."

Lily crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Whatever, James."

"I'm telling the truth!"

Well, she could believe that Sirius would try to sabotage her. That made sense. And James had seemed truly angry with his friend, as did Remus. But that could have been the plan. James could have given Sirius the dirty job to do, knowing perfectly he would sabotage it, and then he could comfort Lily and win the bet. Argh, this was so idiotic. How'd they given it to the house-elves anyway. They worked in the kitchens. The Marauders probably had their own sick ways of doing it.

"So the house-elves just magically knew where Snape would be sitting at dinner?"

James shifted uncomfortably again. "Well, about that…"

She sighed. "Just tell me."

"Snape always sits directly across from you."

He does? Ugh, that really didn't matter, not now. "So you made sure to sit me in the seat at the Gryffindor table that was the equivalent to where the house-elves were going to place the love potion on the Slytherin table?"

Looking anxious and apologetic, James muttered, "In a matter of speaking, except the potion was meant to be one seat down, where Avery would sit."

Yeah right. He had known. He had known Sirius would change it to Snape. Thus, he knew that the potion would be sipped by Snape, who would declare his love for Lily, because Sirius had changed it to do so. Bottom line, James didn't care about her. He didn't mind seeing her get hurt, as long as he could fix it and win the bet.

"I don't believe you."

He gaped at her. "I'm being honest!"

Yeah, so she would have thought if she hadn't known about the bet. "I'm out of here," she stated.

"Wait."

Why was she stopping? She should have just kept walking. James took her halt as a sign that she was willing to listening. "I'll prove to you I'm honest," he said.

She turned on her heel to observe him. His hand was wrapped in his messy hair and he was watching her sturdily. He looked disgruntled. Something welled up inside of her; Godric, she was feeling sorry for him. Why hadn't she just left him there and went up to her dorm?

"How?" she asked, and it scared her to hear her voice come out so softly when she had intended it to come out horribly harsh.

A small smile flickered onto his face. There was hope, at least. "Meet me in the common room tonight, at eleven."

Staring at him, she weighed her options. A very large part of her wanted to go with him. But if she did, what would it lead to? She had finally decided that she wasn't going to fall for his act again, but would his plan of showing his honesty confuse her...again? And there was always the high chance that whatever he was preparing to do could lead to trouble…with the teachers. Okay, she'd made up her mind.

"Fine. Okay."

Ohhh some juicy stuff in that chapter. Rember back in like chapter six when Remus accused James of feeding Lily love potion and Peter said they were saving it for something else? Well, now you know what they were saving it for. Bwahaha, I felt smart for remember that little detail. Alright, not that smart, but I thought it was pretty cool how it worked out. Wow, I'm weird. That's what I get for only getting six hours of sleep last night.

Anywayyysss...I hope you liked this chapter! I thought it was better than the last one at least, but that's just me. Again, Trelawney would like it if you reviewed...and so would I. :) Have a great week! (Oh yay, school...woohoo...sarcasm)

--HeyLookTheSnitch